Diana Agrest

Professor

Diana Agrest is an internationally renowned architect well known for her unique and pioneering approach to architecture and urbanism. Her work has developed in both practice and theory. She has designed and built projects of a variety of types and scales: urban master plans, buildings, residences and interiors, and has received numerous awards.

Agrest is a Full time Professor at The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union. She has taught at Princeton University, Columbia University and Yale, and has been candidate for deanship at The Cooper Union and Pratt Institute. She was a fellow of the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York City from 1972 to 1984.

Agrest has been a pioneer in developing a critical approach to urban theory that articulates film and the city. She created and directed “Framing the City: Film, Video, Urban Architecture,” which was shown at The Whitney Museum of American Art in 1993. Since 1989 Agrest has worked both in practice and theory on the subject of nature, developing projects at various scales, from large cities to parks in China, the United States and Europe.

Her work has been exhibited in museums, galleries and universities throughout this country and abroad, including Schenzen Biennial; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Walker Art Center; The Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art; The Fogg Museum; Leo Castelli, New York; Center Pompidou, Paris; Minalo Triennale; the German Architecture Museum, Frankfurt.

Diana Agrest graduated with an architectural diploma from the University of Buenos Aires and completed her post graduate studies at the Center de Recherche d'Urbanisme, and the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes,Vi Section in Paris, France.

Projects & Links

JOHN AND MARRY PAPPAJOHN SCULPTURE PARK

International Film Center

XUJIAHUI CITY CENTER AND SURROUNDING AREAS

Melrose Community Center

BREUKELEN COMMUNITY CENTER

BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT MASTERPLAN

Midtown Manhattan West

LAS CASAS

Back

JOHN AND MARRY PAPPAJOHN SCULPTURE PARK

Comparative Scale with the Metropolitan Museum in the Manhattan Grid

Open Evening View West

View West

Plensa with Black Snowman

Wall with Bartlett Horses

Wall with De Kooning Cropped Tower

Des Moines, 2009

The John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park, a 300' by 900' in the center of Downtown Des Moines, was built for a major collection of contemporary sculptures donated to the DM Arts Center to be in permanent public view. In this particular project the design addresses the question of an Urban Place seen at different speeds, both by the driver as well as the pedestrian. The design of this Public Space is based around the scale, views and human interaction. Scale is provided by the creation of virtual "rooms", through topographic elements that create a partial visual enclosure where one has the possibility of focusing on a specific cluster of sculptures. The waves rise from the ground to a height of 8 feet at the highest point. Because of their parabolic shapes the waves allow for a variety of views while partially screening the "rooms" where the sculptures are displayed creating a variety of perspectives and visual experiences as the viewer- driver or pedestrian- moves.

Sustainability has been at the center of this project, through the use and treatment of water and use of local materials.

International Film Center

Main Level Plan with Red Carpet and Plaza

Concept Model

Public Plaza With Water Pool

West Lobby

View From Ave. TWDS Theme Street and Museum

Aerial View with Plaza and Red Carpet

2005-06

IFC located on the site of the historic Shanghai film studios will be one of the most important cultural centers in Shanghai. For many years Shanghai has been a major film center in China. International Film Center, will host major national and international events such as, film festivals In synthesis it will create a Forum for the development and exchange of work and ideas on Film. The concept for this project is to create a recognizable structure to be identified with International Film but also integrates with the rest of the area and creates a Civic Space, The formal concept is that like film, it is a continuous strip, that creates similarly to montage, different possible sequences of content

The Site for the project presents two Constraints: first, the zoning regulations require a 0.75 hectares green space on the site and the future construction of the R3 subway will run diagionally under the site.

The International Film Center complex includes :OFFICESTHEATERS-FILM MUSEUMHOTELPLAZAFILM STREET.PARKINGGREEN SPACE

XUJIAHUI CITY CENTER AND SURROUNDING AREAS

Overall Plan

Areas of Intervention

Acupuncture Nodes

Activity Flow Between Centers

Shanghai, PRC2004-05

Xujiahu, in the inner ring of Shanghai is made up of a patchwork of separate areas: the Sports City, the Decoration Center, Universities, Medical Centers, and Shopping further characterized by the lack of quality of urban spaces..

With the rapid development of the district in the last 10 years traffic has become a serious problem; congestion and overlap of conflicting traffic functions, are symptomatic. However, we consider that one of the major problems in Xujiahui is not traffic but the general lack in both the quantity and quality of pedestrian and public spaces.

Our project envisions Xujiahui as a green cultural district where museums, new public spaces, entertainment centers, cultural institutions, and hotels are organized as a network. Our Vision is based on the city’s tradition and past to guide the future. The various types of green will not only beautify the city and create pedestrian friendly spaces, but will also serve to bring sustainability to the city. Our project transforms the district into an International Urban Center, where the present centralized retail activities will be balanced and enriched by a cultural network of institutions and places

Melrose Community Center

Site Plan in Context

View of Entry from Inside

Classroom

Afternoon Garden View

Melrose Community CenterBronx South at Melrose Houses, NYC, 2000

The design of the MCC reflects a desire to avoid a typical fortress-like solution and an ideology of fear, in an area considered dangerous, providing instead the community with a building that conveys a sense of transparency in every way.

Located in the Melrose Houses site, at the intersection of Morris Avenue and 156th Street in the South Bronx, the center serves the communities of the Jackson, Melrose, and Morrisania Houses, thus the diagonal orientation of the plan, relates to the Morrisania while the entry space, parallel to 156th Street opens the building to the Jackson Houses.

The gymnasium, with its elliptical configuration holds the otherwise very open corner while it presents a strong dynamic image when seen from the road. The Gym volume is connected to a bar-like building which contains the remainder of activities, administrative or educational, through a common entrance space; in this way the use is compartmentalized relative to scheduling and security.

Curtain wall glazing along the length of the bar exposes the interior to public view in both directions. Within the bar building, glass walls divide the classrooms from the double height transparent circulation area.

The program for a Community Center for the Breukelen Houses, built in 1951 in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, includes: sports, daycare, library, performance space, classrooms, food service, reception area, game room, computer center, etc. The goals of the project are as follows:

The Breukelen Community Center is composed of two main volumes enclosing programs connected by an atrium for informal gathering and circulation. The southern volume encloses the gym, and is transparent both to the atrium space and to the street. The northern volume is composed of a translucent curtain wall enclosure within which various freestanding rooms for administrative, classroom, eating and gathering functions are interconnected by a bridge-like circulation system on the second level. The space between these program volumes serves as a flexible place for undefined program activities that can occur in a more informal setting. The three exterior walls are made of aluminum-frame curtain wall with translucent glass to allow for light to enter while keeping a sense of privacy. The interior glass wall that opens to the atrium is made of transparent glass.

BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT MASTERPLAN

France, 2001

Project for a new mixed use neighborhood in Boulogne- Billancourt, 30 minutes West of Paris on the Seine on the 65 acre site where the Renault Industries was located and across from the Isle Seguin. The general concept of the project is that of a city/park, where the concept of the park that extends from the existing fabric of the adjacent district to the riverfront, permeates through the fabric creating zones of green that traverse it. This allows for a new type of morphological freedom and thus allows for a great variety of interventions.

The concept is that of a continuous field with different types of green spaces alternating with the built structures, large green apertures, narrower walkways and courtyards. This works together with the green courtyards to create the feeling of a "city-park

A new Park with an esplanade on the Seine provides this new district with a façade on the river. There is great fluidity throughout the project created by the large green entrance spaces from the streets to the park that alternate with the more regular planted streets.

Midtown Manhattan West

2003-04

School Of Architecture, Princeton University / Agrest And Gandelsonas Architects

OUR PLAN IDENTIFIES FIVE AREAS OF INTERVENTION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS AREA :

-Expansion Of The Transportation Infrastructure.

-Creation Of A Network Of Green Spaces.

a) a Network of Green Pedestrian spaces integrated to a New Mixed-use Urban Fabric fragmenting the very long blocks, b) extending to the area between 8th and 10th Avenues infiltrating the existing fabric .c) Green starting at the entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel a New Park over the Roof of the New Convention Center.

-Development Of The WaterfrontOur project proposes the elimination of the piers and the creation of a Floating Park offering sports and entertainment activities..

-Restructuring Of The Urban PlanThe plan proposes to overlap a gradient that starts on the waterfront with residential and continuously displaced from the irongrid to end on a 200’x 200’ grid that coincides with the Irongrid. This varying gradient subdivides the long blocks creating a morphological variety incorporating green within the urban grid

-Relocation Of The Convention CenterIn order to expand the development of the Waterfront we decided to propose the relocation of the Convention Center hanging over the railroad yards

LAS CASAS

Jose Ignacio, Uruguay1998-2001

Site

This project is located on a thirty acre farm close to the Atlantic Ocean in Jose Ignacio, Uruguay. The existing farm's main residence consists of a group of houses built in the local tradition of brick bearing wall construction. The programs calls for a summer vacation residence and a horse farm. The Main Pavilion is an addition for the owners and the Guest House allows the use of the farm as a retreat for meetings as well as for friends.

Main House, Guest House

The approach was to create very simple structures that recalled some of the historic colonial ranches while being strong, modern, and playful at the same time.

A set of free-standing garden walls, were added in order to frame the otherwise scattered existing buildings, create a series of green courtyards. The houses are located on either side of a hill opening to vast country views. On the other side, they achieve a greater degree of privacy as they are framed by the new walls.

Horse Stable

Since the local climate allows for a structure that is not totally enclosed, a large roof structure "floats"

Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.